Salient to Investors: CTFC said hedge funds et al cut combined net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by the most since June 5 and for the fifth week, the longest slump since April. Gold wagers fell to the lowest since August. Adam De Chiara at CoreCommodity Mgmt said the tailwind
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Masood Ahmed at the IMF said Iran’s currency crisis will deepen economic contraction this year by more than the IMF had estimated, while inflation may accelerate to 25.2 percent, the highest in four years. Theodore Karasik at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis said Iran is not going to
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William D. Cohan writes: We were either naive or stupid to believe Obama’s “change you can believe in” included Wall Street. Robert Rubin protegés were appointed to the three most important economic positions in Obama’s first term: Treasury secretary, national economic adviser, and director of the OMB. Other
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Bill Gross at Pimco increased holdings of Treasuries for the first time since April – to 24 percent of Total Return Fund assets last month from 20 percent in September – mortgages were reduced to 47 percent from 49 percent in September. Net cash-and-equivalent assets fell to negative 9 percent in October from negative
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 71 percent of 452 companies so far reporting exceeded analysts’ estimates, 60 percent missed on revenue. Terry L. Morris at National Penn Investors Trust said the lack of sales growth is a surprise – companies have been beating on earnings because of cost cutting, but that can’t go on forever. Read the full
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: John R. Talbott writes: Total costs of 2% per year in a fund earning a 3 percent real return is tantamount to giving Wall Street two-thirds of the profits. ETF’s that cost a half a percent to 1 percent per year can end up costing as much as one-third
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Pat Dorsey at Sanibel Captiva Investment Advisers said Greece leaving the euro would not be a big deal to a portfolio of largely multinational large caps. Dorsey said the uncertainty and worry is a big investment positive – its dangerous to invest is when everybody is certain and confident about the future: a la Yahoo! in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A huge stockpile of cash is meaningless in analyzing a stock – leadership matters more. Payment of cash hordes out as dividends are the exception, not the norm. Read the full article at http://slant.investorplace.com/2012/11/cash-stockpiles-might-be-meaningless-on-wall-street/
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The S&P 500 remains up more than 9% since January 1, 2012, and up 12% in the last 12 months. Corporate profits and revenue are in a fundamental contraction so it’s natural for the market to be held back. Any sitting president has very little influence on the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim O’Neill writes: Nothing has materially changed by the US election and the Chinese leadership handover. The positive surprise in Korean exports in October indicates a pick up in world trade. Japan reported its first seasonally-adjusted current account deficit following other generally grim economic news. It is
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